Boy sustained severe brain injury after road traffic accident

A 13 year old boy was with three of his friends’ rollerblading. He crossed a dual carriageway, where the streetlights were only partially working on a path intended for pedestrians when he was hit by a car.

Sustainingavery severe brain injury, he was in intensive care for two and a half weeks. On recovery, his difficult behaviour and tantrums caused substantial problems and difficulties for his family.

As a result of the accident he attended a specialist school. After leaving school, he initially followed a college course but found that he was unable to cope. He began to work on a part time basis as a care assistant at a special needs school where his mother also worked. Unfortunately, he developed post traumatic epilepsy six years after the accident (as a direct result of it). His employment was interrupted during his periods of illness.

Liability for this personal injury claim was strongly defended. The case was not helped by the fact that the witnesses were young and there were differences in their memories’ of the events leading up to the accident. We obtained an accident reconstruction report which was not supportive, saying that the driver probably did not have sufficient time to react following the claimant’s decision to roller blade out into the road.

Nevertheless, we continued to review all the evidence and managed to establish that the driver had in fact seen the claimant much earlier than was first thought and should have had sufficient time to take avoiding action. We approached the insurers to enter into negotiations on liability and the defendant’s insurers finally agreed to pay 40% of the value of his personal injury claim making a deduction of 60% for his failure to check that the way was clear before crossing the road.

This apportionment of liability was approved by the court (necessary as the claimant was a minor). He underwent in-patient rehabilitation, which was paid for by an interim payment obtained from the defendants.

Unfortunately he had a serious seizure some nine years after the road traffic accident and as a result had to give up his job.

A round table settlement meeting was arranged and an agreement was reached between the parties that he would accept the sum of £650,000 which represents a full valuation of his accident claim of £1.6 million.

The road traffic accident claim involved experts in four medical disciplines and a full range of experts in assessing needs. They included rehabilitation experts, care experts and employment consultants.

If you or a loved one has suffered a traumatic brain injury after an accident then contact our specialist personal injury team on 0118 952 7137 or email piclaims@boyesturner.com.